CATHOLICS ARE free to believe either of the literal creationism or the theistic evolution. Literal creationism means literal interpretation of the account of creation in the Book of Genesis, accepting it as an accurate historical account of the creation of the universe in essentially its present form over the course of six 24-hour days.
Theistic evolution or God-guided evolution on the
other hand means all things in the universe evolved over time under the
guidance of God. Within theistic evolution there are two schools of
thought. One is the so-called Special Creation wherein man is part of all
evolving organisms. This would mean that at a certain point in time man evolved
into a near-human animal and was given a soul by God, and became fully human.
The other school of thought teaches that all things in the universe evolved
from a lower form to a higher one except humans.
Here’s the official teaching of the Catholic Church on
Evolution from the Papal Encyclical of Pope Pius XII in 1950 entitled Humani
Generis: “The teaching authority of the Church does not forbid that, in
conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology,
research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take
place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into
the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter –
for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by
God.”
The Church focuses on things of faith and not on science.
Thus, it gives us the freedom to adhere to any of the two whether creation by
six literal days or evolution by millions of years. The important thing the
Church emphasizes is that the soul is always directly created by God and did
not evolve with matter because it is spiritual in nature. In other words,
contrary to common belief, the Church is not against evolution as long as it is
evolution under God’s guidance who is a God of purpose and not of
chance.
The common question about evolution is, “If we’ve
evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still around?” or if evolution is
really happening, “Why don’t we see half-way evolving organisms or animals?”
Scientific laws are supposed to be repeatable and observable regardless of the
era or time. The law of gravity for example should be the same whether
it’s today, 5 years ago or a million years ago. So, the evolution of animals or
organisms should have been happening as we speak. But why don't we see
it?
One theory says that evolution is not really by
species but by genes. Marriage of different races for humans for example
produces another form of genes. Adaptation to the environment could
likewise alter genes both of animals and humans. This explains why we
have different colors and other features depending on which area in the world
we live. The same thing goes with animals, the tiger found in Asia is
different to that in Africa.
Evolution is not a settled science and is still a
theory. There is strong evidence that the universe evolved some 13.8
billion years ago through quantum fluctuations. Again, the Catholic
Church has no problem with this claim because God could have created the world
gradually and we don’t have to interpret the days in Genesis as 24-hour cycle
but could be epochs or era. The essential thing is that evolution should
not be random or by chance that would render a higher intelligence unnecessary
and that everything is only material and that there is no spiritual dimension
in man we call soul. (Carlos Cornejo)
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